OSU offense explained...

The offense's struggles are not a strategic decision in the sense that the coaches sit down and say "how can we keep our offense from scoring too many points this week?"

It is strategy related because Tressel's offense is so risk-averse that it tends to stifle the explosiveness. That's not an intentional thing-- they don't WANT to stifle it, it just happens in this system.

An analogy: say you were driving from Columbus to New York.

Under Tressel's system, you'd go one mile per hour under the speed limit, just to make sure you got there safely. Sure, you wouldn't make good time, but you'd get there.

A lot of fans and posters on message boards point to USC and similar teams and ask why OSU can't go 110 mph like they do. Yes, they do it in a flashier manner, but if you're going that fast you're more likely to crash, and if you crash, you're dead. USC happens to have a very good driver right now (Leinert), so they can seemingly get away with their lead-footed ways.

If OSU turned Troy Smith totally loose like that, they'd hit a wall before they went 20 miles. No offense to Troy, but if you've watched the games, you've seen him hit opponents in the hands a bunch of times. So Tressel is minimizing the risk, puttering along in the right lane like your grandmother.

You can still crash there, but it's also not a bad way to make sure you complete the trip (see: 2002).